Chapter 14 - DOMINIC’S TRUTH
Lily woke inside a church.
Not a functioning church.
The roof leaked.
Dust covered the pews.
A stained-glass window had been broken years ago.
Dominic Russo sat three rows ahead.
He was alone.
No ropes bound Lily’s wrists.
No guards stood near the doors.
She slowly sat up.
Her head hurt.
“You drugged me.”
Dominic looked back.
“Gabriel’s man did.”
Lily frowned.
“Gabriel?”
“No.”
Dominic replied.
“One of Raymond’s people inside Gabriel’s team.”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“Where is Gabriel?”
“Alive.”
“Victor?”
“Alive.”
“Ethan?”
Dominic looked toward the broken altar.
“Victor has him.”
Relief almost knocked Lily down.
She closed her eyes.
“Why take me?”
Dominic stood.
“To keep you away from Raymond.”
She laughed.
“You have a strange way of protecting people.”
“Yes.”
Dominic admitted.
“I learned from bad teachers.”
Lily looked around.
“Where are we?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
Her heart changed.
“Catherine.”
“Yes.”
The name from Nicholas’s token.
The name of Elena’s grandmother.
The name on the encrypted folder.
Dominic walked toward the altar.
“Thomas chose this place.”
Lily followed cautiously.
“Why?”
“Because Catherine Moretti owned the land before the church.”
Dominic moved a loose stone behind the altar.
A metal box appeared.
Lily stared.
“The second copy.”
“No.”
Dominic replied.
“The last copy.”
He opened the box.
Inside was a handwritten ledger.
The actual paper ledger everyone had believed existed.
Lily’s breath caught.
“My father said the evidence was digital.”
“He lied on purpose.”
Dominic said.
“Digital copies could be duplicated.”
“The paper ledger contains one thing the drives do not.”
“What?”
“His handwritten annotations.”
“His conclusions.”
“His list of who he trusted.”
Lily stared.
“And who did he trust?”
Dominic looked at her.
“You.”
She almost laughed.
“I was seventeen.”
“That was why.”
Dominic handed her the ledger.
Thomas’s handwriting covered the pages.
Dates.
Payments.
Initials.
Arrows.
Questions.
Then names.
Salvatore Blackwood.
Michael Blackwood.
Raymond Hale.
Serena Montigue.
Adrian Blackwood.
Dominic Russo.
Gabriel Kane.
Victor Blackwood.
Lily’s eyes stopped.
Gabriel.
“What did Gabriel do?”
“Keep reading.”
Beside Gabriel’s name, Thomas had written.
LOYAL TO VICTOR.
Lily exhaled.
Beside Dominic’s.
LOYAL TO THE FAMILY, NOT THE BUSINESS.
She looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic sat on the edge of a pew.
“It means I spent thirty years protecting people from the thing I helped build.”
“You worked for Salvatore.”
“Yes.”
“You covered crimes.”
“Yes.”
“You protected Victor.”
“Yes.”
“Did you betray my father?”
Dominic looked down.
“I failed him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Dominic looked up.
“I did not betray Thomas.”
Lily studied him.
“Then why did you tell Victor you wanted to end the family?”
“Because I do.”
She frowned.
“Victor?”
“No.”
“The Blackwood organization.”
Dominic replied.
“The system.”
“The secrets.”
“The loyalty that turns decent people into accomplices.”
Lily stared.
“Thomas wanted the same thing.”
“Yes.”
“Elena did too.”
“Yes.”
“Adrian?”
“Eventually.”
“And Victor?”
Dominic’s expression became sad.
“Victor has never been allowed to imagine life outside it.”
Lily thought of Ethan.
“Maybe he will now.”
Dominic nodded.
“That is what Thomas hoped.”
Lily looked at the ledger.
“Why not tell Victor all of this?”
“Because Victor reacts before he trusts.”
“He would have moved against Raymond.”
“He did.”
“Yes.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“And Raymond predicted every move.”
Lily hated that he was right.
“Then what is your plan?”
“Raymond believes I’m bringing you to him.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re using me as bait too.”
“No.”
Dominic replied.
“I’m giving you a choice.”
He placed a phone beside her.
“One call.”
“You can call Victor.”
“He’ll come.”
“Or?”
“You call Raymond.”
Lily stared.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because Raymond still believes the paper ledger is a myth.”
“If you tell him you have it, he comes personally.”
Lily understood.
“And then?”
Dominic looked toward the confessional booth.
A red light blinked.
“Federal agents have been listening for twenty minutes.”
Lily stared.
Two men emerged.
Dark suits.
Badges.
She laughed in disbelief.
“You’re working with the FBI?”
Dominic nodded.
“For three years.”
Lily sat.
The world had become ridiculous.
“You’re an informant.”
“Yes.”
“Does Victor know?”
“No.”
“Does Gabriel?”
“No.”
“Does anyone?”
“Maria.”
Dominic’s wife.
Lily remembered her lying unconscious beside the fake Ethan.
“She knew.”
“She knew enough.”
Dominic’s face tightened.
“Raymond’s men attacked her because they believed I had told her where Thomas’s evidence was.”
Lily looked at the agents.
“Why didn’t you arrest Raymond already?”
One agent answered.
“Financial cases require admissible evidence.”
“Raymond insulated himself.”
“Every order passed through layers.”
“We had money.”
“We had witnesses.”
“We never had direct command evidence.”
Dominic pointed to the paper ledger.
“Thomas recorded meetings.”
Lily frowned.
“Where?”
“Page 319.”
She turned.
A note.
R.H. - C.M. ACCOUNT - AUDIO ARCHIVE CODE: LILY’S BIRTHDAY.
Her throat tightened.
“What is C.M.?”
Dominic replied.
“Chicago Meridian.”
Raymond’s private holding company.
The FBI agent leaned forward.
“If the archive still exists, it may contain Raymond personally ordering Thomas’s death, Elena’s sabotage, and payments connected to Ethan.”
Lily stared.
“And the password is my birthday.”
“Yes.”
“Where is the archive?”
Dominic looked at the church organ.
Lily almost laughed again.
Of course.
Hidden inside an old pipe-organ console was a tiny encrypted storage unit.
Thomas had turned an abandoned church into a dead man’s switch.
Lily entered her birthday.
The archive opened.
Hundreds of files appeared.
One was dated the night before Thomas died.
Dominic pressed play.
Raymond’s voice filled the church.
“Michael, Bennett leaves tomorrow.”
Michael Blackwood answered.
“I’ll stop him.”
“How?”
“Does it matter?”
Raymond replied.
“Yes.”
“It must look accidental.”
Lily closed her eyes.
There it was.
Proof.
Her father had not died in a random crash.
Raymond had ordered Michael to stop him.
The next file was dated eleven months ago.
Serena’s voice.
“Elena knows about the tracker.”
Raymond replied.
“Then scare her.”
“No permanent damage.”
Another voice entered.
Michael was already dead by then.
The voice belonged to someone else.
Lily listened.
Dominic’s face changed.
He recognized it.
Victor would too.
Gabriel Kane.
“We can make the steering fail for thirty seconds.”
Lily’s stomach dropped.
Gabriel continued.
“She’ll hit something.”
“She’ll stop asking questions.”
Raymond replied.
“No body.”
“No funeral.”
“Victor becomes impossible when grieving.”
Lily stared.
Gabriel had been involved in Elena’s crash.
The man Thomas labeled loyal to Victor.
The man who had served him seventeen years.
The man Victor trusted with Ethan’s life.
Dominic whispered.
“I didn’t know.”
Lily’s phone rang.
Victor.
Dominic looked at her.
“Answer.”
She did.
“Victor.”
His voice was ice.
“Where are you?”
“With Dominic.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Put him on.”
“Wait.”
“Lily.”
“Victor, listen to me.”
He fell silent.
She looked at the audio file.
“Gabriel helped sabotage Elena’s car.”
Silence.
Not a word.
Then Victor said.
“No.”
“I heard him.”
“No.”
“Thomas recorded it.”
Victor’s breathing changed.
“Where is Gabriel now?”
Lily realized something.
“Victor.”
His voice hardened.
“Where is he?”
Lily whispered.
“With you.”
Victor looked across the safe house where Ethan slept.
Gabriel stood near the door.
Adrian held Nicholas’s DNA report.
Serena sat with Nicholas.
Victor stared at the man who had guarded his back for seventeen years.
Gabriel noticed.
“What?”
Victor lowered the phone.
“Nothing.”
He smiled.
It was not warmth.
“Absolutely nothing.”
Gabriel looked uneasy.
Victor walked closer.
“Lily found Thomas’s final archive.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
Just slightly.
But Victor saw it.
Then Gabriel smiled.
“That’s good.”
Victor nodded.
“Yes.”
“Very.”
His phone remained connected.
Lily heard everything.
Victor stopped three feet from Gabriel.
“Elena recorded you.”
Gabriel’s eyes changed.
Victor’s voice lowered.
“You touched her car.”
Silence.
Serena stood.
Adrian’s hand moved toward his weapon.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Then he sighed.
“I wondered when this day would come.”
Victor stared at him.
“Why?”
Gabriel looked toward sleeping Ethan.
“Because Elena wasn’t supposed to die.”
Victor’s fist struck him before the sentence ended.
Gabriel fell.
Victor grabbed him.
“You touched her car.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury her.”
“Yes.”
Victor nearly hit him again.
Gabriel shouted.
“I tried to save her.”
Victor stopped.
“What?”
Gabriel’s eyes filled.
“I sabotaged the steering exactly enough to frighten her.”
“Raymond ordered it.”
“I was working undercover for Salvatore.”
Victor stared.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“Your father knew Raymond was moving against the family.”
“He ordered me inside Raymond’s network.”
Victor’s grip loosened slightly.
Gabriel continued.
“I followed Elena after she left.”
“The steering failed.”
“She should have hit the barrier at twenty miles an hour.”
“But a truck came through the intersection.”
Victor remembered the police report.
The truck driver had vanished.
Gabriel’s face changed.
“That truck wasn’t an accident.”
Victor whispered.
“Who sent it?”
Gabriel looked toward Serena.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Gabriel replied.
“Serena didn’t.”
Adrian frowned.
“Raymond?”
Gabriel slowly shook his head.
“No.”
Victor stared.
“Then who?”
Gabriel gave the answer nobody expected.
“Elena did.”
Silence.
Victor released him.
“What did you say?”
Gabriel’s voice shook.
“Your wife arranged the truck.”
Victor looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
Gabriel continued.
“She knew her car would be sabotaged.”
“She knew I was involved.”
“She planned to fake her death.”
Victor stopped breathing.
Lily heard the words through the phone.
Serena covered her mouth.
Adrian whispered.
“No.”
Victor’s voice barely worked.
“My wife is dead.”
Gabriel looked directly at him.
“No.”
May you like
“She isn’t.”
And somewhere in the abandoned church, Lily realized the entire story had just changed.
